Emily and JJ's relationship had been slow to start. Slow might have actually been a gross understatement, but that's the word everyone normally used. Their attraction to each other had been fairly immediate upon meeting, but Emily had been utterly uninterested in making waves at a job she'd worked her ass off to be able to have that people clearly hadn't wanted her at. Her desire to not rock the boat faded the more the team came to accept and rely on her until it got to the point where the only reason the two of them were dancing around each other was because they were both unsure, both unwilling to potentially damage an amazing friendship in the event something went wrong, so they were just friends.
But Emily and JJ weren't just friends.
Emily and JJ had never been just friends in the entire time they'd known each other. The reasons they made up to themselves that kept them from being together were largely rooted in fear. Fear of not being what the other expected, fear of not being what other people expected together, fear of damaging the bond they had; it was a two steps forward, three steps back dynamic that silently drove everyone around them almost as nuts as it obviously drove them.
Emily had thought that it was in the best of both their interests to nudge JJ towards Will. He was far less complicated: he wasn't on the team, he was a man, he was clearly mad about JJ and JJ was interested. Interested, but hesitant and Emily knew that it was because of her, because of them when they weren't even a 'them' but Emily had been right in thinking that JJ had needed Emily herself to make that nudge and while it had been a painful thing to do, JJ seemed happy enough and that was all that mattered to her. Sure, there were things about Will, things he said or did that raised Emily's hackles, but she figured that was just her feelings talking and not sense. At first, anyway.
When Will had let it slip to the team that JJ was pregnant, Emily had already known. The blonde had called her a few days after she'd found out in a crisis. Not about being pregnant; she hadn't planned to have children just then but she was thrilled about it once it happened—no, Will had asked JJ to marry him. All but assumed her yes and JJ hadn't known what to do. She could have—probably should have—called Garcia, yet the first and only number she'd dialed had been Emily's. She didn't know what she'd expected Emily to say, but she'd been understanding, supportive, and had agreed to play dumb about it so JJ would have time to think. JJ had realized with a crushing kind of clarity after they'd hung up the phone that she'd wanted Emily to tell her outright not to do it. She'd wanted Emily to tell her not to do it because she want Emily to just know that she wasn't one hundred percent invested in Will because Emily had too much of her heart. But she hadn't and JJ took it as a sign that whatever they could have been, whatever had been between them was now one-sided.
That had been far from the case, but JJ hadn't realized it until after Henry was born. Leading up to the birth, Will had been suggesting more frequently that JJ quit her job and JJ continued to brush him off—they'd been over it a million times and she had no interest in quitting the BAU. Especially not when she was being told to. It wasn't much more than a minor annoyance until a few months after she'd had the baby. Then they not only constantly fought about JJ's unwillingness to leave her job, but Will had started to become oppressively possessive and jealous. JJ saw the way Emily would roll her eyes when she spoke about Will, the way Emily stiffened up when JJ had to leave in the middle of a ladies night, the odd tone underlying the dutiful acerbic comments tossed out when JJ complained about how things were going at home…it was different when Garcia had done those things, much different, and JJ realized that things had never been one-sided.
It had reached a point of no return when they'd come off a tough case and the plane was grounded for the next two days because of a severe storm. With nothing to do but unwind, the team had all but camped out at the hotel bar with the rest of the disgruntled guests who weren't able to make their flights, which was when it happened. Emily and JJ had been sharing a room because of a convention in town and a little after midnight they'd stumbled into their room laughing at Morgan drunkenly trying to nail a magic trick Reid had shown him at least a hundred times that night.
Emily had been trying to catch her breath as she leaned against the closed door of their room and JJ felt a wave of impulsion come over her that she didn't have the energy to fight anymore and she leaned in and kissed her. Though she hadn't really been expecting anything less, JJ was pleased with the ferocity with which Emily returned the kiss, reversing their positions so JJ was pinned between Emily and the door. All was lost in a haze of feeling and hands and lips until JJ was pulling Emily's shirt up from where it was tucked into her pants.
"We can't." Emily had breathed helplessly against JJ's mouth, sounding as pained to be saying so as JJ was to be stopped. JJ wasn't a cheater and Emily wasn't a home wrecker and she wasn't going to be complicit in proving them both wrong about either of those things.
"I don't care." JJ had murmured against the flushed skin of Emily's neck, both of them knowing she did care despite the conviction in her tone. A line had already been crossed though, and they spent the next day and a half barely untangling from each other's mouths and while they slept in the same bed, sleep was all they did. When they got back to their regular lives, Emily had been adamant that that couldn't happen again, as much as either of them might have wanted it to.
Emily wanted little more than to be with JJ, but not like that. Not in a way that either of them might regret. Not in a way that they'd have to explain to Henry at some point how they got started. So they went back to dancing around each other though since they'd known more concretely what they were missing, there was far more tension there than there had been before. A little less than a month after their first kiss, Emily had been at home when there was frantic pounding on her apartment door. Luckily, she had just fallen asleep on the couch and she'd managed to shake off a little of the grogginess the two o'clock hour had settled into her bones when she pulled open the door to find a bright eyed JJ on the other side.
Emily hadn't even been able to process any of her worry about why Jennifer was at her door at such an ungodly hour, let alone voice it before JJ's lips were on hers and she was being pressed against the wall of her front hall. Emily responded enthusiastically until her brain caught up to her body and she had gently pushed JJ away from her. "Jayje, I can't." she had pleaded with a shake of her head.
Emily hadn't been expecting the grin that lit up JJ's face as a response, but that's what she got when JJ had looped her arms around her neck. "I can't either." JJ had said, her voice an excited hush. "So I left him."
Emily had blinked several times, trying to make sure she wasn't dreaming but the feel of JJ in her arms and smiling at her expectantly was very real. "Where's Henry?"
"Garcia has him for the night." JJ had assured her, nipping at an earlobe. "Now shut-up and kiss me." And Emily had obliged, wrapping her arms around JJ's waist and all but carrying her further into the apartment, both of them determined not to waste any more words.
JJ and Emily had been inseparable since that night and everyone had felt like it was about damn time. Four years after their first kiss, they finally were making plans to get married. At first they'd waited because their work life and home life were so busy, they didn't want to add planning a wedding on top of that, but then they'd found out about the pool at the office and decided to drag things out long enough to shame their team members.
Emily frequently complained that she wished they would have waited longer because planning a wedding between work and regular home life was just as arduous as they thought it was going to be—though it wasn't a secret that she wouldn't have it any other way either. They'd been doing their best to include Henry in the planning process, he was the official ring bearer naturally and he'd been spending most of the planning process hanging around Emily after the first time JJ had gone dress shopping with Garcia, her mother, and sister-in-law, and he had been bored to tears. While Emily was going to be wearing a dress as well, everyone had unanimously decided that while JJ certainly was the one who wore the pants in the relationship, Emily was the "groom" so she only had to get one dress and she hated dress shopping as much as Henry hated waiting around for people dress shopping.
Emily and Morgan were sitting in JJ and Emily's living room discussing suit cuts for the groomsmen, Henry planted firmly in Emily's lap and fiddling with the fabric swatches Emily's tailor had left the previous day. Morgan was pointing something out in the style guide opened on the coffee table and Emily shook her head thoughtfully.
"That's a good cut for you, but not everyone else." She said, wrapping an arm around Henry's waist to lean over and flip through the guide.
"S'matter, Princess?" Derek said with a broad grin. "Afraid I'm gonna look too pretty and show you up on your big day?"
"And why are you my best man again?" Emily snorted, rolling her eyes.
Before Morgan could answer, Henry leaned his head back to look at his other mother with grave offence etched across his features. "Momem," he whined accusatorily. "I thought I was your bestest man?"
Emily and Derek laughed which only made his frown deeper and the adults laugh harder. Emily kissed the top of his head and assured him, "you're my favourite man of all, that's why you're the 'bestest.' Uncle Derek is just called the best man because he has a job to do during the wedding, like you carrying the ring."
"I wanna do like Uncle Derek too." Henry pleaded; turning doe eyes he already knew would get him what he wanted on Emily. "Can I please?"
Emily smiled down into the wide eyes so much like his mother and brushed some of his hair out of his face. "We'll work something out, buddy." She promised.
And work something out she did which was how Henry ended up in his slightly different suit (that matched Derek's) and standing up with Emily's 'groomsmen' that included Rossi who had walked her down the aisle on the big day. After their vows, when JJ and Emily turned to face their guests, Emily cleared her throat and addressed the small crowd, her and linked with JJ's.
"Normally, this is the part where we take our first steps together as wife and…" she looked over at JJ and smiled softly. "Wife, but today isn't just about a public display of my commitment to my soulmate," she squeezed the hand in hers. "But my commitment to my family. To our son; so we have a little extra part in today's ceremony." Emily turned a little to hold her hand out to Henry who scampered over with his shaggy hair and a grin that showed missing teeth and took his place between JJ and Emily as they went over to a low table that had four jars on it.
One jar was full of blue sand, one full of red sand, one full of purple sand, and the larger of the four stood empty.
"It can be hard being a single mother and trying to date." JJ said, running a ringed hand through Henry's hair affectionately. "People often felt like it's too much of a package, but that's the way Henry and I come. We're a package deal. I never once had any cause to doubt Emily's commitment to me or to Henry, even before we officially started dating. Henry is Emily's son as much as mine and we were going to save this bit of information until after the reception, but Emily's adoption papers for Henry finally went through a couple days ago but even if they hadn't, we're still a family and have been for a while now which was why we wanted to include Henry in today's celebration of love.
Because today isn't just about romantic love, though there's plenty of that, but the love we have for Henry too. We were going to get a little ring for Henry, but Emily convinced me that we'd find it in the couch cushions with the vacuum a week from now with a Hot Wheels car and some stale Cheetos, so we're symbolically blending our family with this sand."
JJ hands Henry the little jar of purple sand while she picks up the red jar and Emily picks up the blue and they pour their sand into the empty jar all at the same time, Henry's face a picture of profound concentration. After their individual jars are empty, JJ bends down and gives Henry a kiss, Emily does the same, and the new spouses lean over the top of their son's head to kiss each other and they walk down the aisle as a family with Henry in the middle holding onto his mothers' hands, all grinning so hard at each other their faces hurt.
At the reception after the first dance, they do a silly little boogie for a family dance to a song Henry picked out and it's utterly ridiculous, but it's obvious how happy they all are.
The blended jar of sand sat on the mantle of their fireplace after the wedding and when Henry was packing up to go to college, he asks Emily; "momem, s'it cool if I take some of that?" while waving casually at the jar of sand and Emily cried because she's always been extra emotional when it came to her little boy and that was just such a sweet thing for him to ask.
"What happened to your mother?" JJ asked when she came into the room.
"I asked to take some sand." Henry said, rolling his eyes fondly. "I just think it looks cool or whatever, you know?" he laughed when JJ started tearing up too. "Oh man, ma, not you too." And normally he would protest to such a display, but he let his mothers sandwich him in a hug and pepper his face with kisses and when he goes off to school, a small jar of blended tri-colour sand sits proudly on his desk in his dorm.